


Prior Claim

by Circe (ELG)



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: M/M, Rape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-22
Updated: 2013-03-22
Packaged: 2017-12-06 02:11:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/730409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ELG/pseuds/Circe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniel is determined to conceal what Chaka really did to him on P3X-888 from Jack but Jack is a better detective than Daniel bargains for. [Printed in Pretense #1] Apologies for character assassination of poor Chaka. Jack/Daniel Pre-Slash.<br/>[WARNINGS: Non-Con pairing: Chaka/Daniel]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prior Claim

Daniel supposed he should have seen this coming. After all Chaka was an adolescent male, which meant he was probably ninety-eight percent hormones. And, of course, killing enemies, like having power over something weaker than oneself, were two traditional methods of getting adolescent males horny as hell. He was the one who'd been trying to get Chaka to stop seeing him as food and start seeing him as…something else. He'd been thinking along the lines of 'friend', but Chaka clearly didn't come from a culture where one had friends. That was a concept he was going to have to learn, but for the moment he was coming from a mindset where there existed only alpha males and beta males. Females to mate with if one achieved sufficient status in the clan, and females that belonged to other males of higher status. 

Chaka didn't want to kill him, but he was having to find a reason to justify it not only to himself but to the rest of the tribe. If Daniel wasn't food what was he? Not a threat. That was what Daniel had been trying to push. He so wasn't threatening. He was a submissive beta male, who would do what Chaka wanted. He just hadn't anticipated Chaka wanting to do…this. 

It was probably more to do with domination than overpowering lust. Chaka ensuring Daniel realized he was the one in charge. Male primates often mated with lesser males to keep them in their place. Birds of prey apparently did it too. It was an unmistakable display of submission which everyone understood, including any females who might otherwise make the mistake of thinking the male being mated with was a viable mate.

So was he going to submit or not? How much did he want to live?

As Chaka moved in closer, Daniel shivered. He had to keep his head if he was going to survive but it was difficult to concentrate when panicking seemed like such a good response to the current situation.

He swallowed. "Can we…talk about this?" 

Chaka had him wedged into the corner and was clearly trying to work out which of Daniel was skin and which clothing. Daniel felt hot Unas breath on his neck, clawed fingers pulling determinedly at his jacket. A talon scratched his chest and he flinched. "Okay, okay. Let me do this." He held up a hand to ward Chaka off and as the Unas growled at him in annoyance, quickly unbuttoned his jacket. "I'm cooperating. I'd just rather not get skinned."

He could smell Chaka's impatience. Now the Unas had decided what he was, it was clearly in a hurry to make their new relationship concrete. Daniel was thinking rapidly while trying to fight the panic. Resisting was probably going to get him killed, or at the very least severely injured. Then Chaka might well rape him anyway. Rape was definitely something to be avoided. Not that this was going to be exactly consensual sex anyway, but as long as he could keep some kind of dialogue going then perhaps he could have some influence over the way things went.

As he reluctantly pulled his t-shirt over his head, Daniel said, "You know the Ancient Greeks didn't feel penetration was necessary for good sex. Have you ever considered the advantages of inter-crural intercourse?"

His voice sounded dry and panicky, which was hardly surprising given the rate at which his heart was slamming into his chest.

Chaka made a sound denoting pleasure and impatience and reached out to touch Daniel's bare chest.

Daniel flinched as the talons made light scratches in his skin, barely enough to draw blood but still painful enough. Chaka rubbed the side of his thumb across Daniel's nipple, apparently fascinated by Daniel's different physiognomy. Unfortunately they weren't so different that Chaka didn't know which part of Daniel he wanted naked next, and he was enough like a human adolescent that foreplay didn't interest him anything like as much as getting his dick into something warm as soon as possible. He tugged impatiently at Daniel's fatigue pants. 

"Chaka, I really don't want to…." Daniel swallowed hard. "You're going to hurt me." Glancing up at the Unas he saw the complete lack of comprehension in its eyes. It tugged harder at his pants and said something sharply that was clearly 'Hurry up' in Unas language. Daniel reluctantly began to unbutton his pants. "But then 'hurt' is all relative, isn't it? You probably have a much higher pain threshold than I do, and foreplay isn't something alpha males go in for with their chosen mates. You get chosen, you get…mated with. What would be my idea of something that hurt like…buggery would be your idea of something you just had to put up with. As proven by the way you've been ignoring that bullet wound in your hand as though it was nothing… I'm gabbling, aren't I?" Daniel unlaced his boots and then began to pull down his pants. The way Chaka grabbed the cloth and tugged at it showed that his interest in the proceedings certainly didn't seem to be lessening.

Sitting in front of a strong-smelling Unas, his back pressed against the cave wall, wearing only his boxer shorts, Daniel tried to get some moisture back into his mouth. He held up his hands and Chaka impatiently slapped them aside. "No, listen, please. You're going to hurt me…a lot if you don't let me…. Let me what…?" Daniel looked around for inspiration and saw his jacket. Sunblock. Sunblock would help a little. As he reached for it, Chaka caught him by the hips and twisted him over into a kneeling position.

"Wait! Ka! Ka!" Daniel could hear a lot more panic in his voice than authority but it did make the Unas recoil, hissing with annoyance as he did so.

Daniel darted him a pleading look over his shoulder. "I'm not fighting you. Just let me –"

With feverish haste, Daniel grabbed the sunblock and poured it onto his fingers. He didn't really know what the hell he was doing, but he had read enough about the practices of ancient cultures to know that lubricant was a good idea.

Chaka was tugging down his boxer shorts. Daniel felt a sudden breeze against his rear as it was exposed. He twisted around quickly, trying to get his ass away from that over-eager cock.

Landing hard on his bare seat, he got a anthropologist's eye view of Chaka's erection for the first time and gasped in shock. "Oh shit…" he breathed.

Swallowing hard he said faintly, "Can I interest you in a hand job at all?"

As Chaka snarled at him. Daniel quickly wrapped his lubricated hand around the Unas' cock and pumped it quickly. The backhand knocked him against the cave wall. When he painfully peeled himself off the wall and looked over his shoulder Chaka was staring back at him with a disbelieving look on his face. 

"Okay…so male Unas obviously don't touch each other's genitalia. My mistake." Daniel hunched his shoulders in submission, then slipped a lubricated finger up inside himself. It felt incredibly weird and…dirty. He winced as he pushed another fingers up inside himself. That hurt, but not as much as that erection of Chaka's was going to if he couldn't get himself prepared in time…. Too late. Chaka grabbed him by the hips and turned him over again. He pulled Daniel's hand away impatiently, slapping Daniel's palm down on the floor in a way that made it very clear he expected him to hold that position for the duration.

It went against every instinct Daniel had to just kneel there and take it, but commonsense told him that if ever there was a time to submit, it was now. Chaka wasn't angry or hostile, yet. He was just aroused and eager.

Daniel felt something slippery and wet bruise his buttock, then jab against his perineum. He was still wincing from that when Chaka's clawed talons closed around his hips to hold him still. The next second an uncomfortably large head was breaching him.

"Oh Christ…!" Daniel sank his teeth into his own upper arm to stop himself yelping but he couldn't stop the sweat breaking out all over his body. He straddled his legs wider, trying not to tense up when every cell in his body was screaming 'No!' As the first clumsy thrust stretched him painfully, he tried to pull away, but Chaka tightened his grip and thrust again.

Eyes closed, face contorted, stifling his exclamations in his own skin, Daniel endured the clumsy but vigorous buffeting Chaka subjected him to as submissively as he could. Daniel's body jolted painfully as Chaka slammed into him with considerably more eagerness than finesse. It really was a pretty hit and miss affair and he had to remind himself that what from a human male would have been an act of contempt and cruelty, in the case of Chaka was simply the mating ritual he was used to. He had chosen Daniel as a mate. That was an elevation from choosing him for lunch. This was how Unas had sex. There was no hostility involved in the actions. The fact Daniel's eyes were currently watering with the pain, he was bruised and breathless from the rapid thrusting to which he had been subjected, and he felt as if he had been sodomized by an angry gorilla was neither here nor there.

Chaka's roar of triumph at the point of climax was actually music to Daniel's ears. He even welcomed that spurt of hot fluid inside him. At least it was over now.

Waiting for the Unas to withdraw its softened cock from inside him, he was taken aback when it rolled them both onto their sides and began to coo and purr into his ear. 

Daniel looked over his shoulder. " _Now_ I get the foreplay?" He tried to wriggle away from its penis but it immediately pushed itself back inside him and began to thrust again, but very gently this time, just rocking their bodies together while it nibbled the back of his neck with surprising tenderness. Its cock was not completely soft, he realized, more like semi-hard, but it was much less painful to accommodate like this.

Wincing a little, Daniel nevertheless did relax gradually as it continued to nibble his neck and shoulders while fucking him gently with its semi-erect cock. He was so exhausted that he could feel himself drifting towards slumber despite the fact he had a large scaly Unas wrapped around his naked body nudging at his prostate with maddening little thrusts and purring what seemed to be sweet nothings into his ear.

"Must be a society that generally takes its mates by force…" Daniel murmured sleepily. "Probably from other tribes to avoid too much reduction of the gene pool. The first mating would be to show who was boss, make it clear the mate was now a possession of the captor. Then there's the 'I'm not such a bad guy after all and you really might get to like this' interlude, and then there's the…" Daniel opened his eyes in realization. "Then there's the next bout."

As he thought it, Chaka finally pulled out of him, but it was with a sense of weary resignation rather than surprise that Daniel felt himself tipped over onto his hands and knees again. "Oh boy…" He hung his head in defeat. "You're the equivalent of a seventeen year old body builder who's just taken a handful of speed, aren't you?" He looked between his legs to see the upside-down proof that Chaka was raring to go once more.

"You know we can do this until the sun comes up, you're still not going to get any young out of it – " Daniel scrunched his eyes closed in anticipation as Chaka gripped him by the hips again. A second later he was entered by a now fully erect Unas cock. But now that he was stretched, lubricated, and stimulated the pain was almost negligible. It wasn't a pleasant experience but it was something to which he could submit himself with more resignation than desperation. He grunted, wincing as Chaka thrust deep inside him. It was still too eager to give it to him anything but hard and fast, but he supposed if it got to practice enough it would probably learn to take things slower. 

As it gripped his hips harder and began to increase its pace further, he wondered if he was the first thing Chaka had ever got to mate with. If he had been saved by not so much his own skills as an anthropologist but by the Unas' insistent hormones. And as he braced himself against the force of its thrusts, he wondered what the hell Jack would say when he found out the real reason why it hadn't killed him. Scrunching his eyes up tighter as Chaka pounded into him, Daniel decided if he had anything to do with it Jack was _never_ going to find out about this.

***

Ironically it was Jack who helped him evade the full physical. As far as Jack was concerned, the main worry was that he had been harboring a Goa'uld; as soon as he passed the MRI with flying colors and no symbiote, the man just wanted him to have whatever Daniel wanted. When Daniel said that what he _really_ wanted was to go home, have a nice hot shower, and then sleep for a week, Jack pretty much bulldozed Janet into agreeing.

"Colonel, I've barely had a chance to examine him. He was knocked out for several hours and I really think we need to keep Daniel in for observation so I can…."

"Daniel?" Jack turned to look at him. "Have you got a headache? Double vision? Nausea? Any signs of concussion?"

"No." He fixed Janet with his best pleading look. "Please, Janet. I just need to be somewhere I feel…"

"Safe?" Jack looked at him then glanced at Janet, his expression making it clear he thought anyone who turned down such a reasonable request was a heartless she-demon.

"Don't you feel safe here?"

"I really want to go home." He looked at the floor then looked up at her. "Please?"

Jack led Janet away and he heard the low murmur of conversation. Jack could be very persuasive sometimes but all the same he didn't think she was going to give in on this one. As soon as she'd heard he'd been knocked out she'd been getting nurses to fluff up the pillows in an infirmary bed in readiness. He could only gape in surprise when Jack came back over and gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder. "Come on, Daniel. I'll drive you home."

"Thank you." He couldn't stop the relief spilling out. He looked at Janet who was watching him anxiously. "I really am okay."

"I'm trusting you, Daniel."

The words played a knife blade across his conscience but he disguised his wince. They didn't need to know. No one ever needed to know. He forced a bright smile. "I'm fine, Janet, really. I just need some sleep."

 

Jack being so nice to him didn't make him feel any better either. The man let him rest on the way home, not making any flippant comments, automatically putting out a hand to take his elbow when he got out at the end of the drive, giving him one of those reassuring and approving pats on the back as they entered the apartment.

"Are you hungry?"

Daniel shook his head. "I just need a shower." Although he was desperate to obliterate the evidence he hoped he wasn't making it too obvious. He found a smile which he hoped was reassuring. "I think I smell a little ripe."

Jack gave him a smile in return. "Well, I didn't like to say anything, Daniel. Okay, you go run yourself a shower and I'll make the bed for you. You're sure you don't need anything to eat?"

Daniel nodded. "Sure. Thanks."

"I'm going to sleep on the couch."

Daniel blinked at him in surprise. "You are? There's really no need, Jack, I…"

"That was the deal with Fraiser. Either I stay here with you or you stayed in the infirmary."

He felt the gratitude warring uncomfortably with the knowledge he was hiding something from Jack. He had to force a rather sickly smile. "Thanks."

Jack grimaced. "Under the circumstances, it seems like the least I can do."

As Daniel ran the shower and scrubbed at his skin with the strongest smelling soap he could find, he told himself fiercely that he was protecting Jack from this. Jack had enough to contend with having been forced to kill Robert; he didn't need this as well. Jack wouldn't understand that as an anthropologist Daniel was okay with this. There had been no hostility in the action. No malice. It hadn't been the action of a human male who wanted to humiliate and hurt him. Even though the experience had been both painful and degrading in many ways, that hadn't been Chaka's intention, which was why he was okay with it. But Jack wouldn't understand that. He would just get angry and be upset he hadn't been able to protect Daniel from that experience. It was really for the best that he kept this to himself.

He rubbed the soap all over his body, over and over again, then washed it off, rubbing the lather between his buttocks, down the back of his thighs, under his balls, everywhere Chaka had come, trying to remove every trace of Unas semen, every telltale piece of evidence. 

Then he stepped out of the shower and wrapped himself in a towel. His dirty clothes were lying on the floor where he'd left them and he picked up the bundle of them to shove them into the basket. When Jack was asleep, he would put them in the washing machine and wash them through. No one would know. No one would ever know.

As he stepped out into the sitting room, toweling his hair, he felt as if a great weight had rolled from his back. "Do you want some coffee or –?"

It was Jack's expression which told him the man knew. He didn't know how, but somehow Jack knew. Daniel swallowed hard. "Um…coffee or –?"

Jack wordlessly held up something which it took Daniel a moment to realize were his boxer shorts. Oh God he should have thought. He should have put his clothes straight into the basket, taken the damned shorts into the shower with him, anything.

"I brought you some clean towels. They were in the dryer." Jack kept his eyes fixed on Daniel's face, expressionless, unreadable. "I thought I'd wash your clothes for you."

Daniel found his voice with difficulty. "Thank you."

Jack continued to meet his gaze, eyes boring into him, making it impossible for Daniel to look away even though he really wanted to. "Why is there blood in your shorts?"

"I…" Daniel cast around for something – anything – that would make this situation go away, this conversation something that didn't have to take place. "I must have scratched myself on something."

"Why is there semen in your shorts?"

Daniel swallowed hard. "What?"

Jack held the boxer shorts up so he could see the stains. It looked disgusting, sordid, yellowish Unas semen stains and streaks of blood. Jack pointed wordlessly to the armchair. Daniel sat down before he could stop himself, wincing as his rear touched the cushions. He saw Jack see the wince, saw him wince in return. He wasn't sure he'd ever seen Jack so angry. At least some of that anger was directed at the Unas, but most of it was at him, and Chaka wasn't around to yell at.

Jack said very clearly and precisely, "Why is there blood and semen in your shorts, Daniel?"

Daniel managed to look away. "You know why."

"No, I don't know why. I can guess why. But I don't _know_ why, because you haven't told me yet. All you've told me is that you're fine, the Unas didn't hurt you, and you don't need any medical attention. So how many of the things you told me were a lie, Daniel. Just those three or is there more?"

Jack sounded colder than any iceberg and to his horror Daniel felt tears pricking at his eyelids. God no, don't say he was going to cry like a child because Jack was angry with him. That was just ridiculous. "I didn't lie." His voice sounded thick and muffled. "I'm fine."

"Did that lizard rape you?"

Daniel flinched from the word and shot Jack a reproachful glance but Jack didn't even blink, still holding Daniel's gaze remorselessly. 

"Answer the question, Daniel. Did that Unas rape you or not?"

"Not." Daniel snapped it at him. "It's not a concept that exists in Chaka's culture."

Jack stared at him in disbelief. "What?"

"There is no such thing as rape in Chaka's culture. Therefore he didn't rape me."

Jack held his gaze. "So he had sex with you against your will, but it wasn't rape?"

Daniel wrapped his arms around himself, having to fight an urge to rock. "I agreed to it. Or at least…I didn't fight it."

Jack got up and walked towards him. For the first time in his life, Daniel wondered if Jack was going to hit him. The man's anger was like a palpable force around him. "So you wanted it? You were aroused by the idea? You were hot for an Unas fucking you?"

Daniel lowered his head. "No."

Jack kept coming towards him. "So what happened?"

Daniel put a hand up to his face. "I don't want to talk about it. It wasn't rape. It was just a cultural experience. Chaka was making me a part of his tribe. The only way he could get them to accept me was as his mate. He was just doing what Unas do. I understand why he did it. He wasn't trying to hurt me."

Jack was standing right over him now, he could smell the man's sweat, feel his body heat. Jack said, "So that would be why it didn't hurt when it forced its cock inside you? And why you don't feel dirty now? And why you're absolutely fine about being held down and forced to have sex you didn't ask for and didn't want?"

He didn't know where the tears came from. He only knew he was crying when the hot salt liquid spattered the back of his hand. Then he was racked with the sobs, body shaking with them.

"It's okay… It's okay…." 

He could feel Jack's arms around him, guiding his head into Jack's chest, holding him tight and close, a warm mouth nuzzling the top of his head. "It's okay, Daniel."

Oh God, he'd almost died. All those people had died. Robert, Loder, Hawkins…. He'd been going to be Unas food, and he'd ended up Unas ass instead. He'd let an Unas fuck him. Chaka's come was still inside him. And he hadn't even meant Daniel any harm. Chaka liked him. Chaka had risked its life to save his. He liked Chaka, too, but he'd let him fuck him. How could he like someone who had…? What was the matter with him? He was still covered in its scent. He needed to wash it off again. Needed to…

"It's okay. You didn't do anything wrong. You did everything right." The grip on him tightened and he felt himself rocked gently.

"What?" He inhaled Jack's scent and then muttered it into his neck. "How can you say I did everything right? All those people are dead…"

"There was nothing you could do for them. All you could do was try to make that Unas your friend and keep yourself alive until we could rescue you. Which you did. You did everything right, Daniel."

Callused palms warmed the side of his face, tilting his head up. Jack was looking at him with that compassionate expression on his face. The one where he was willing Daniel to hear him with every fiber of his body. 

Daniel stared up at him in perplexity. "I don't understand."

"If you'd made it angry, it would have killed you. If you hadn't consented to having sex, it would have ripped you to pieces. You were living in its world, you had to play by its rules. Most people wouldn't have got that. You did."

"You understand that?" Daniel gazed at him in confusion.

"I understand a lot of things." He sat down on the sofa next to Daniel and spoke very gently. "Now tell me the truth. Do we need to go back to the infirmary?"

Daniel shook his head vehemently. "No. I swear, Jack. I used…sunblock. I don't think it hurt me. I'm just…" He couldn't articulate it and luckily Jack didn't seem to need it.

"Okay." Jack reached into his pocket. "I'm going to give you a painkiller which Janet gave me in case that scratch on your face started to throb. She's already given you an antibiotic injection because of it, so hopefully that will stop you getting an infection. I'm going to stay with you and keep an eye on your temperature. Promise me, if you start to get a fever, you'll tell me?"

Daniel nodded again. "I promise." He felt very out of his depth now, pathetically grateful for the way Jack was taking charge.

The man reached across and stroked his hair gently. "You're in shock, Daniel. You're still reacting to what happened to you. I think you need to sleep."

"Yes." Sleep sounded wonderful. Just dreamless sleep and everything being different when he woke up again.

Jack took his arm and Daniel let the man lead him to the bedroom. He took the painkiller and the glass of water Jack handed him, swallowed the pill and washed it down with water, but when he turned to look at the bed, he thought of being alone here, with all those memories climbing under the sheets with him, and blanched. "I can't…"

"I'll stay." Jack was already unlacing his shoes. "I'll stay right here."

"Yes." Daniel climbed into the bed, waiting anxiously for Jack to join him.

Pulling his t-shirt over his head, the older man looked across at him with the first sign of doubt on his face. "I meant in the room, Daniel."

"No. Here." Daniel could hear the panic in his voice.

Jack obviously could too. "Okay."

A minute later, stripped down to his briefs, Jack climbed into the bed next to Daniel. Daniel didn't care how he seemed now. He had lost all hopes of maintaining his self-respect. He'd sobbed in Jack's arms like a baby because he'd let Chaka have sex with him. He couldn't cope with what he'd done and he didn't want to. He just wanted to hand everything over to someone else and then go to sleep. He pressed in close against Jack, wanting to hear his heartbeat and the man put his arms around him and held him tightly. "Go to sleep, Daniel," he said gently.

"Don't tell anyone."

"I won't tell anyone."

"Don't hate Chaka."

He felt the grip around him tighten reflexively. "That, I can't promise."

"Jack in his culture, he was just…"

Fingers closed in his hair and his head was eased back so he could look into two intense brown eyes. "Yes, and in my culture he just raped my best friend. If you want to forgive him, that's fine, but I can't, Daniel, so don't ask me to."

Daniel nodded sadly. "I like him. I don't like what he did to me, but I like him. I think he's a good…person. He just comes from a different culture. Like Teal'c." _Like you_. 

"I understand."

Daniel looked up in surprise. "You do?"

Jack pulled a face. "No, I don't, but it doesn't matter, just go to sleep."

Daniel burrowed in against the man's chest again and Jack put his arms around him.

Daniel sighed against Jack's chest hair. This was the thing about Jack he sometimes forgot, that beneath the hardass military exterior there was a core that was half steel, half marshmallow. He could be uncommunicative and downright dense at times, but when he was really needed, he understood why and how and in what way without a word needing to be exchanged. Daniel already felt sleepy, and the events on that planet were receding. The sex wasn't important, not really, it hadn't been attached to anything significant and it wasn't going to be on his medical records, which meant that as far as the USAF were concerned, it had never taken place. He'd bonded with an Unas, never mind how. The important thing was that Chaka had risked his life to defend Daniel and had wanted Daniel to stay but had been willing to let him go. Somehow they had achieved a kind of equality despite the forced nature of the sex. Next time he thought Chaka would probably ask. Perhaps Daniel had even gained status from having a tribe of his own to which he had returned…. Daniel opened his eyes. That was a point. Chaka had taken Daniel as a mate but been willing to let him return to his own tribe. To his own…. He looked up at Jack and found that Jack was looking down at him, an unreadable expression on his face.

"I think he might have thought you were my mate." Daniel grimaced apologetically. "That you'd come to fetch me back."

Jack's face didn't so much as flicker. "I'd say that was a reasonable assumption."

Daniel blinked in surprise. "What?"

"I hear you've been taken by a rival male from a different clan and I gather up my tribe and take a hunting party out to retrieve you, making it very clear that nothing and no one is going to stop me until I have you back safely again."

"Yes, I suppose it probably would have looked a bit like that to an outside observer."

"Outside observer, nothing. That's what happened."

For a moment Daniel was stunned and then he realized Jack was thinking in terms of teams. Daniel was part of his team, his tribe; naturally he would want to retrieve him. Nevertheless… "That sounds kind of…" He didn't know how to phrase it. 

"That's how it is." There was great emphasis in the way Jack spoke.

Daniel gave him a sideways look. "Are we having a 'Me Jack, You Daniel' moment?"

"Yes."

Daniel knew he was probably doing a passable impression of a goldfish at the moment. "Oh. What…brought this on?"

Jack shrugged. "Let's just say that you being kidnapped by an Unas brought some things home to me, and you being raped by an Unas really dotted the 'i's and crossed the 't's for me."

It took a moment for Daniel to realize that what he was feeling was relief; overwhelming relief. "It could just be your protective instinct kicking in. You have a pretty over developed one of those."

"Could be." Jack was blandly non-committal. "Now, go to sleep."

"But you've just told me…"

"And we're on the same team, and I'm your CO and nothing is going to come from this. Not yet. But all the same I think it's something we both need to acknowledge. Just the way Chaka acknowledged it."

"He thought you had a prior claim." Daniel could feel exhaustion pressing down on his eyelids.

As he drifted towards slumber he felt warm moist lips very gently brush his eyelids before a kiss was pressed into his hair. Jack's voice was so soft it was barely audible but there was absolute certainty in the words he whispered in Daniel's ear: "He was right."

_The End_


End file.
